Thursday I had to load in Cleburne for a delivery in Kansas City Friday. Because of a bad weather forecast for Friday morning I drove straight from Cleburne to KC arriving at 2:30 Friday morning. I finally delivered around 11:00 and left KC around 2:30 pm with plenty of time to get home to my sweetie that evening.
Just before sunset I was 35 miles north of Wichita, Ks. when my truck started slowing down and finally ground to a halt. Turns out the trailer brakes had locked up and nothing I tried released them. A mechanic from our Wichita yard came out to get me rolling but it took almost two hours for him to get to me and then we had to climb around under the trailer for another 45 minutes or so in 15 degree weather getting the brakes released.
The brakes weren't fixed however so, I had to limp into the Wichita yard. They put my trailer out of service and gave me another but, by this time it was 8:30 pm. I was tired and decided to spend the night there and leave early the next morning.
With my sleeping bag I am pretty good down into the mid 20's so I don't usually idle the truck because it is so noisy and rough. Because the forecast was for the mid teens I decided to idle all night so I would have heat. My bladder woke me up around 6 am Saturday and when I got up to go empty it I found my alternator and low battery lights were on. I went into the building and told one of the dispatchers my issue. He called the mechanic that was on call. The mechanic turned out to be the poor guy who had to come out and rescue me the night before.
I thought my alternator had gone bad however, when we got it into the shop he discover that an idler pulley was bad and had thrown the fan belt off. Turned out he had a replacement on hand and one bolt and 20 minutes later I was back in business.
I left Wichita around 8:30 am and got back to the yard in Fort Worth around 2:30 pm where I promptly went home and straight to bed with a fever that didn't break till Sunday morning.
So, why is God good? Well if my brakes hadn't locked up I would have kept going and I would have thrown that belt in the middle of nowhere. If i hadn't idled my truck all night the belt would have come off Saturday morning and I would have been stuck again. It wouldn't have been just a matter of releasing trailer brakes so I would have had to wait forever for a wrecker. Who knows if there would have been the right part available in the middle of the night and I would have been exhausted. By the time I got rolling again it would probably have been Saturday afternoon and that fever would have made me too sick to drive.
I was close to one of our yards so I was rescued fairly quickly. I wanted to get home but, decided to wait. I usually don't idle the truck but, decided to. I was repaired Saturday morning by 8:00 an and rolling again and got home before I was feeling to bad.
Was all this coincidence. Maybe. But, these kinds of, "coincidences", have happened to me my whole life. I believe I have a guardian angel that works overtime. You believe what you will.
